NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Thyroid cancer is a disease that few people consider until it happens to them. This was my case and it turns out other local women had the same experience.

One of these women is Jennifer Lovisa Pritchett. At 39, Pritchett is in his prime. Her family is her world: her husband Paul, as well as their children: Caleb, 10 years old, Kayla, 8 years old and Toby, 5 years old.

But recently her world was shattered when she received a devastating phone call from her doctor in July. She had tested positive for thyroid cancer.

“My heart just dropped,” she said. “You know, I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know anything about the type of cancer. You can only think of your children, your husband, your family.

Doctors say that thyroid cancer occurs much more often in women than in men, adolescents or children. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located at the front of the neck. It has a left lobe and a right lobe. It produces hormones that regulate functions such as a person’s heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolism.

But when thyroid cells start growing out of control, they can trigger thyroid cancer.

As for why it appears primarily in women, some medical researchers say it is due to the female hormone estrogen. But other researchers say there’s still no clear answer.

“I feel like it’s almost like a death sentence, even though deep down, you know, it’s not always that way,” Pritchett said.

This year, the American Cancer Society says doctors will diagnose about 44,000 Americans with thyroid cancer. The majority of them will be women, almost 32,000.

Doctors say that in many cases, patients like Pritchett had no early symptoms or family history of the disease. Pritchett says the lump on his neck tested negative for cancer eight years ago. That’s part of why she says she didn’t do follow-up testing until this year.

“I thought everything would be OK,” Pritchett said.

But since her previous biopsy, the nodule has become cancerous and attached to her vocal cord. Her surgeon had to remove her entire thyroid to reduce the risk of the cancer spreading.

“So they took it out,” she said. “Then they had to scrape my vocal cord to try to get as much out of it as possible. But the cells stayed there and my voice was ruined for a few months.

All she has to do now is take a pill in January to kill the remaining cancer cells. But she knows things could have been worse if she had delayed visiting her doctor.

I, too, have personally learned the importance of test tracking.

I have no family history of thyroid cancer. I also had no early symptoms. But my doctor wanted to check a suspicious swollen area on my neck.

I was at work in August when I received a call from my doctor, shortly before heading to our Fox 8 studio to anchor the midday newscast. I found out my biopsy came back positive for thyroid cancer.

This is news that shakes you to your very core. To this day, I don’t know how I finished the TV news that day. But I would later be grateful that it was detected early, because this discovery led to further medical testing.

It was during these tests that a separate medical problem was detected: inflammation of the nerve connected to my vocal cord.

During my surgery, the surgeon removed the cancerous part of my thyroid, located on the left thyroid lobe. The team also successfully treated the inflammation issue related to my vocal cord.

But the road to recovery has been difficult. I lost my voice for several weeks. It’s still healing, just like my surgery scar.

“It’s always better to find these things, the sooner the better. They are smaller and easier to operate on,” said Dr. Grayson Gremillion.

The surgeon said that when thyroid cancer is not treated early, it can stop a vocal cord from working and trigger other problems.

“You may feel strangled if they get really big, feel like you can’t swallow, or have trouble breathing,” Gremillion said.

He urges everyone, especially women, to make sure to have their necks checked for potentially cancerous nodules at least once a year. A primary care physician or gynecologist can perform the exams during routine annual visits.

The Metairie surgeon said doctors check for possible thyroid problems by palpating the neck from the front and back. He also checks the neck when the patient swallows, another way to detect irregularities in the gland.

Fellow surgeon Dr. Michael DeSalvo says most diagnosed forms of thyroid cancer can now be treated with surgery, even when they spread to the neck. The most commonly diagnosed form in women is papillary thyroid cancer, which is the type found in Pritchett and me.

“Ninety-five percent of those patients are still running today,” DeSalvo said. “So, yes, a very preventable disease.”

As for the surgical scar left by the incision to remove the cancer, DeSalvo says there are many creams and gels to make them less visible.

“We usually try to find a skin fold to insert it,” DeSalvo said. “And from an aesthetic point of view, it’s excellent.”

Pritchett said she is not embarrassed by her surgical scar.

“I feel like that scar was my symbol of ‘I beat this,’ you know?” she said. “So, because it’s here, I’m pretty proud of it.”

This scar is also a symbol of Pritchett’s second chance at life.

“She’s going to get through this and everything will be fine and she’ll have a long life and raise her children,” said her mother Sandy Lovisa.

The scar is a daily reminder of what she has overcome. Pritchett said she hopes this also serves as a lesson to other women not to take health for granted.

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